JUST one year after the decision of a panel of three judges in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, Georgia, who unanimously overturned the Miami trial of the five Cuban anti-terrorist fighters and annulled the sentences handed down, the plenary of that judicial instance has just announced its decision on a reconsideration of the finding of August 9, 2005.
Close to half of the Court document’s 120 pages are devoted to the arguments of the 10 judges who acted against the defense and the rest to the two others – both from the August 9 panel last year – who reaffirmed their points of view.
The ruling will have to be closely studied but what stands out a priori is that the full panel ratified the decision of the Miami court where our compatriots were tried and sentenced and rejected the application for a retrial, and decided to send back to the three-judge panel the rest of the questions that they did not discuss. Thus they have returned to the three-judge panel its analysis of issues such as the charges of conspiracy to commit espionage and the erroneous application of the Classified Information Procedures Act, among others.
Without any doubt, this ruling extends and makes indefinite the imprisonment of five men who will have completed eight years of an unjust incarceration on September 12.
Five men who tried to save Cuba and the United States from acts of terrorism promoted by individuals like Luis Posada Carriles, confessed killer and active terrorist, for whom a whole show is being prepared on this August 14, in an attempt to grant him U.S. citizenship in virtue of the criminal acts he perpetrated under orders of George Bush Sr.
The news came out shortly after the August 9 edition of the “Informative Roundtable.” This new decision has been awaited since the hearing before the full 12-judge panel on February 14, when the two sides put forward their verbal arguments. Six months have gone by and 12 since the earlier ruling until the current decision.
This is an unprecedented decision in that country’s legal history.
By accepting the reconsideration of the previous appeal ruling, delivered in that instance in the interest of justice, the incorrect conduct of the case by the prosecution has been legitimated and what we have reiterated ad infinitum has been confirmed: that this has been a political case since the very beginning and in the legal proceedings against the Five all the hatred and desire for revenge has been heaped on these combatants.
But all this is taking place in an unprecedented manner at a point when there are calls in Miami to do away with a sovereign nation, invoking terrorism and bloodbaths and proclaiming political assassination and genocide at the top of their lungs in the media.